Birmingham Royal Ballet to proceed with 2011 tour to Japan

15 April 2011

Charity-fundraising performance added on 17 May in Tokyo

David Bintley speaks of being present during the disaster

Company joined by special guests

The company will perform Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty and Frederick Ashton's Daphnis and Chloë and The Dream.

For selected performances Miyako Yoshida will guest in The Dream and Tamara Rojo will guest in The Sleeping Beauty.

Birmingham Royal Ballet can now confirm it will go ahead with its planned International tour to Japan in May 2011. Two years in the planning, the second International tour during the current 2010-11 season will see the Midlands based company perform in four cities across the southern region of Japan. From May 14–29 2011, the tour will include dates in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, plus performances in Kamakura, Aichi and Hyogo.

The performance on Tuesday 17 May at Tokyo’s U-port Hall venue will be a Benefit Performance for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief.

David Bintley, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet said:

"On the afternoon of 11 March 2011, I was rehearsing the dancers of the National Ballet of Japan in my ballet Take Five, part of the Company’s latest programme, due to premiere the following Saturday. The devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred that day and the resulting tragic plight of the Japanese people echoed around the world. Music, singing and dancing, which can so often bring joy and happiness to the spirit seemed inappropriate, and the New National along with most theatres in Tokyo closed its doors as the people of Japan began to count the cost of the tragedy visited upon them.

"Two months later with Japan facing its future with a bravery and stoicism that has become the admiration of the world, I am proud to be bringing Birmingham Royal Ballet to Japan as part of the cultural and spiritual healing of this great nation. We hope that our performances of Sir Peter Wright’s classic production of The Sleeping Beauty and Sir Frederick Ashton’s warm and wonderful masterpieces, The Dream and Daphnis and Chloë will bring joy and light to our Japanese audiences and provide them with some respite from their current difficulties."

Promoted by NBS Performing Arts Foundation based in Tokyo, the tour highlights three of the company’s much-admired works from its varied repertory. The classical favourite in Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty and a double bill consisting of Frederick Ashton’s ballets, Daphnis and Chloë and The Dream, will be performed in some of Japan’s finest theatres. The company last toured to Japan in January 2008.

Special guests

Dancing alongside Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal César Morales, Miyako Yoshida will guest in the role of Titania in two performances of The Dream in Tokyo (27 & 29 May). Born in Japan and trained in Tokyo, Yoshida won the Prix de Lausanne in 1983 and then joined the Royal Ballet School. In 1984 she joined Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, the present Birmingham Royal Ballet, and was promoted to Principal in 1988 under the artistic directorship of Peter Wright. In 1995 she joined the Royal Ballet as Principal and retired from the Royal Ballet in 2010.

Tamara Rojo will guest in two performances of The Sleeping Beauty in Tokyo (21 & 22 May) and will dance the role of Princess Aurora, partnered by Birmingham Royal Ballet's Iain Mackay. Rojo, born in Spain, is a Principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London.

Royal Ballet Sinfonia's Principal Conductor Paul Murphy and conductor Philip Ellis will conduct the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra during the tour with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra playing in Hyogo. Students of Elmhurst School for Dance, an Associate School of Birmingham Royal Ballet, will join the company during the first two weeks of the tour for performances of The Sleeping Beauty.

ENDS

For further press information please contact:
Simon Harper, Media and PR Manager, on 0121 245 3562; Email: SimonHarper@brb.org.uk
or Claire Lishman, Media and PR Officer, on 0121 245 3549 Email: ClaireLishman@brb.org.uk

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